Sugar Ain't Sweet

What is Sugar?

Our bodies naturally produce a hormone called insulin. Insulin helps take glucose (sugar) from the blood to the body's cells. Our body uses the energy produced in this process to fuel our system. Diabetes occurs when the body does not properly produce or use insulin. In describing the diabetic condition to patients, physicians may have explained it as the body's failure to convert blood glucose or sugar to energy.

A person with a fasting blood glucose level between 100-125 mgl/dl, is considered pre diabetic. It is estimated that 54 million Americans are pre-diabetic. A fasting blood glucose level higher than 126 signals diabetes. Blood glucose tests are administered by physicians and are relatively simple to conduct.

There are two primary types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. Five percent of diabetic Americans are diagnosed with type 1. In type 1 diabetes, the body fails to produce insulin. The majority of Americans living with diabetes have type 2. This condition occurs when the body fails to properly use insulin.

Additionally, in the United States nearly 135,000 pregnant women are diagnosed with gestational diabetes each year. Gestational diabetes is an insulin resistant condition in which the body fails to properly use insulin, much like type 2. Gestational diabetes generally disappears after the delivery, but women who have had this condition are likely to experience it with subsequent pregnancies. They are also more likely to develop type 2 diabetes later in life. Gestational diabetes can also affect the fetus, contributing to birth defects; difficult labor/delivery; or predisposing the baby to the development of diabetes.

Is the Fat Lady singing?

Sugar is among the most preventable and treatable diseases, though a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine ranked diabetes among the worst managed diseases in this country. This is due, in part,to the overwhelming failure of many pre-diabetic and post-diagnosis patients' willingness/ability to seek routine treatment. Ninety-five percent of diabetes care management is in the hands of the patient. In one study, nearly half of the patients diagnosed with diabetes had discontinued their treatment program within one year. Moreover, it has been estimated that diabetes was the cause of death for more than 200,000 Americans in 2002. It is estimated that this number would be significantly higher if diabetes as a contributing factor for deaths related to heart attacks and strokes, etc., was more prevalently reported.

Neither a pre-diabetic condition, nor a diagnosis of full-blown diabetes has to be a death knell. For some, proper diet and exercise can significantly reduce risks. People with pre- diabetes may prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes by making changes in their diet and by exercising more regularly. Reducing unhealthy cholesterol, high blood glucose levels, maintaining proper weight and eliminating smoking are also life prolonging healthy habits those at risk for diabetes must consider. It is also critical to your continued good health to follow the doctor's orders for your medication...all the time!!!

The importance of early detection and consistent, proper treatment is another key to minimizing the depredation of diabetes. Health care providers are learning more about the design of more effective diabetes care management programs. Additionally, many health maintenance organizations offer disease management programs like diabetes management for their patients that often include rewards for achieving treatment goals. Patients must not be passive participants in the treatment planning process. Ask questions about instructions you don't understand. There are also a number of national and community level programs aimed at diabetes awareness through organizations like the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association and local hospitals.

Imagine Vanessa Williams' brilliant, beautiful eyes dulled by blindness or Beyonce's famous legs maimed by amputation. Can you picture the studly Ving Rhames felled by failed kidneys?

A disproportionate number of African Americans face these conditions because of improperly treated diabetes. Blindness, amputations, kidney failure, permanent nerve damage, heart disease and stroke are among the chief co-occurring conditions of diabetes.

Far too many Americans, particularly African Americans, suffer from diabetes and its often deadly complications. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 20 million Americans are diabetics. Almost six million of these people are not aware that
they have the disease. American physicians are diagnosing nearly one million new cases each year. In 2002, the economic cost of treating diabetes was estimated at $132 billion dollars, or one out of every ten U. S. health care dollars. Consider these harrowing
statistics about diabetes related conditions reported for 2002:

• 200,000 deaths
• 55,000 amputations
• 29,000 dialysis patients
• 25,000 cases of retinopathy-related blindness

There is no cure for diabetes. Diabetics can enjoy relatively healthy and productive lives by embracing the philosophy that living with diabetes is a journey, not a pit stop. Are you game?